So I made the smart decision on my first play through of the game to do no planet scanning at all....now I'm screwed...so I had to spend 1 and a half hours of mining to get halfway through my upgrades. Any tips on planets to mine or upgrades that aren't worth it? Also wondering about the med bay (50000 platinum!!) just for a visual, it doesn't seem right

Good mining spots are to be found in every major plot cluster. Omega is a very good farming place for to start with. Skip anything below good, except you find eezo on it. Do you have a save file transfer from a lvl 60 ME1 char? Saves a lot of scanning as you get almost 60 percent at game start 4 free.

Your scars heal if you follow parahon and increase with renegade decission. Some women find scars attractive... but mostly krogan.

Best heavy weapon depends on what you like. It is situational, especially at the end.

Upgrades do count for your party aswell.... at halved effectiveness of course. Tech and biotic upgrades provide more help for them.

You need the ship's shields, armor and weapon upgrades for the final mission.

I don't understand why folks are so angry with ME2 survey system. It's so easy and very user friendly. You can mine tons of resources before first mission on Omega is even a go. I like it infinitely more than pointless Mako 'surveyor/prospector services' from ME1.

I just do everything that seem beneficial to Shepard at the time, i.e. Infiltrator will focus Snipers, SMGs and Assault Rifles when you do the Collector ship, shields and tech damage/cds. Everything else to the 3 main ship upgrades for Suicide Mission and the surplas I chuck here and there.

@ Thessian: Uh because it sucks lol? ME1's system is VASTLY superior to ME2's. You survey planets with the click of a button in ME1, much like in ME3 except even faster. How is ME2's boring, tedious system better than that? No combat involved, no money involved, no other loot involved. Lame. In terms of the MAKO...well I dunno about you, but I use the MAKO for missions not surveying. Sure there are survey-able items on those uncharted planets, but they are 100% optional, and skipping them to go right to your mission site won't hurt you at all. Just ask Joe what happens when you skip out on the ME2 scanning. If you truly want to upgrade most of your stuff, you gotta spend about 2 hours scanning in a run. Two really boring hours. In ME1 you don't have to spend any time at all surveying for minerals, and it doesn't really matter. That's why most folks hate the ME2 scanning.

@ Igor the Ugly: After playing ME1 5 times start to finish I gave up on planets completely. The only times I even entered a mako in my 5th playthrough was main missions and those that carry into the next games. It gets incredibly frustrating because:

-the distances on the planets are often HUGE

-every item or mineral is near the edges of the map making everything take way longer

-most of it doesn't even carry into the other games as anything significant

-I already waste enough time riding the elevator to the cargo bay and back

ME2, on the other hand, has a well balanced system because it suits the upgrade system of the game. It doesn't take too long to gather resources by landing on planets, but it still makes you interact with and explore other planets and systems to get the currency you need. (plus your leftover minerals contribute to ME3 war score)

In what way it sucks?! Because actually gathering resources im ME2 has meaningful purpose and takes fraction of the time and effort instead wasting time driving Mako just to complete meaningless quest of Rare minerals in the Journal. Sure for "Assignment Completionist Challenge" it has some residual worth, but outside that its general purpose is so thin that even space vacuum is more dense.

@MidCarrot

Exactly mate. Since 3rd run of ME1 I've stopped wasting my time. What the heck for do I need mapped deposits, medallions or some lost war insignia? It's not like you really need them to reach that lvl 60 to beat the game. Level 60 isn't required to do that and leveling in ME2 to lvl 30 takes at most half of the game anyway with imported save.

For me Mako is only for critical plot missions and nothing else. Not to say I hate Mako, I love it. I hate Hammerhead. Toilet paper is more rugged.